Boutis' or French Quilting :Update with links for books, blog, pix, supplies, videos!

This was my first Boutis' project and is a needle case. It's a great holder for your tapestry and long doll needles plus the quilting needles you need to do this project.

One of the projects I'm working on for next year's art festival is a piece of french quilting. The title is "Ronde Fleur" which means round of flowers. French quilting or 'boutis" (pronounced boo-tee), is not something you hear about in America.

It is very popular in France where it originated and in Japan. A lady named Segolene, a very well known quilter from France, spent a morning teaching me the basics of this art, since almost no one in America does it.
Instead of putting batting between two layers of cloth and then quilting it, which is the American way to quilt, you put the two layers of cotton together, draw the design on top, and quilt it with tiny stitches. Then you thread a tapestry needle with cotton yarn and pop it between the the two layers of cotton pulling the yarn between the grains of the cloth. It really helps to put it in a embroidery frame to keep the tension tight.

You pull it through from one side to the other of a part of the design and then clip off the excess yarn, leaving the ends to 'anchor' the piece of yarn. I wear rubber finger covers like the kind you use to leaf through papers, to give me a good grip on the needle. This makes it much easier! You do this over and over again laying a layer of side by side pieces of yarn. Once you have filled the leaf or petal or whatever, you poke all the ends into the cloth leaving no edges of the yarn showing. Eventually the cloth threads close back together so that you can't see where you popped the needle through. This is not easy!! It took me a lot of trial and error to start getting it right.

I made these two pillows for my son Andrew and his wife, Elisabeth, for their wedding this last Spring. They wanted two pillows for their little ringbearers to carry. The one on the left I call "Love Birds" and did it all by hand. The one on the right I did strictly by machine in about half a day and it held Andrew's ring.Here is a picture of the book showing how to 'pop' the thread through the layers of cloth. If you are at all interested, I would be glad to give you a little demonstration. I think it is the most beautiful form of quilting I have ever seen.
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Hi Elisabeth, This book has the patterns but you can't read it because it's not in English, It's in French. It's actually one thick book and a separate book with huge patterns--worth every penny! I was taught to do it by a French quilter in the Houston area. It was a very sketchy lesson, but with what she showed me and watching the videos and buying the magazine article I figured it out. I really need to do a video myself so people can see how it is done. I think I will do that when I get back. But there are videos online that show how to do it and a magazine article that is pretty good. Plus there are books on the market, but I've heard that Boutis and Trapunto book is not terribly good. You might want to check out the reviews.

NEEDLES: Fat tapesty needle about 2" long and Doll Needles about 6 " long--You can buy these at Hancocks for sure. You will also need quilting needles, though I feel like you could use a regular sewing needle and just baste with tiny stitches. And you will need white cotton thread.

The BOOK I use for patterns is Boutis D'Hier & D'Aujourd'hui. Nicole Astier
is the name of the book I used for patterns for projects. There are so many gorgous patterns!
Here is a link with the best Video on how to do boutis' and Threads is the magazine that has a great article with excellent pictures showing how to do this. I own that magazine just for the article on Boutis.

Marie Yolande is the quilter who does the video. Her website is a wonderful place to visit Marie Yolande.com She sells kits for doing baby layette projects.

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Welcome to Comin' Home! If you lived nearby, I'd invite you over to my neck of the woods for a nice long chat and a cup of tea out on the deck. But since we can't do that, I hope you'll stay and look around. I love learning new things and sharing what I learn with friends. Comin' Home is where I share tips from my many projects. Let's have some fun together! XO Donna